s, a third is at St Denis, a fourth at Bruges, a fifth at the
abbey of Tenaille in the Saintonge, a sixth at Draguignau, the whole
number making fourteen shown in different towns and countries.(132) Each
place exhibiting these nails produces certain proofs to establish the
genuineness of its relic, but all these claims may be placed on a par as
equally absurd.

Then follows the iron spear with which our Saviour's side was pierced. It
could be but one, and yet by some extraordinary process it seems to have
been multiplied into four; for there is one at Rome, one at the Holy
Chapel at Paris, one at the abbey of Tenaille in Saintonge, and one at
Selve, near Bourdeaux.

With regard to the crown of thorns, one must believe that the slips of
which it was plaited had been planted, and had produced an abundant
growth, for otherwise it is impossible to understand how it could have
increased so much.

A third part of this crown is preserved at the Holy Chapel at Paris, three
thorns at the Church of the Holy Cross, and a number of them at St
Eustache in the same city; there are a good many of the thorns at Sienna,
one at Vicenza, four at Bourges, three at Besancon, three at Port Royal,
and I do not know how many at Salvatierra in Spain, two at St James of
Compostella, three at Albi, and one at least in the following
places:--Toulouse, Macon, Charroux in Poitiers; at Cleri, St Flour, St
Maximim in Provence, in the abbey of La Salle at St Martin of Noyon,
&c.(133)

It must be observed, that the early church has made no mention of this
crown, consequently the root that produced all these relics must have
grown a long time after the passion of our Lord. With regard to the coat,
woven throughout without a seam, for which the soldiers at the cross cast
lots, there is one to be seen at Argenteuil near Paris, and another at
Treves in Germany.

It is now time to treat of the "_sudary_," about which relic they have
displayed their folly even more than in the affair of the holy coat; for
besides the sudary of Veronica, which is shown in the Church of St Peter
at Rome, it is the boast of several towns that they each possess one, as
for instance Carcassone, Nice, Aix-la-Chapelle, Treves, Besancon, without
reckoning the _fragments_ to be seen in various places.(134)

Now, I ask whether those persons were not bereft of their senses who could
take long pilgrimages, at much expense and fatigue, in order to see
sheets, of the reality of whic